1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a heterocyclic compound, a light-emitting element, a light-emitting device, an electronic device, and a lighting device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, research and development have been extensively conducted on light-emitting elements utilizing electroluminescence (EL). In the basic structure of such a light-emitting element, a layer containing a light-emitting substance is interposed between a pair of electrodes. By voltage application to this element, light emission from the light-emitting substance can be obtained.
Since such light-emitting elements are self-luminous elements, they have advantages over liquid crystal displays in having high pixel visibility and eliminating the need for backlights, for example, thereby being considered as suitable for flat panel display elements. Light-emitting elements are also highly advantageous in that they can be thin and lightweight. Furthermore, very high speed response is one of the features of such elements.
Furthermore, since such light-emitting elements can be formed in a film form, they make it possible to provide planar light emission. Accordingly, elements having a large area can be easily formed. This is a feature difficult to obtain with point light sources typified by incandescent lamps and LEDs or linear light sources typified by fluorescent lamps. Thus, light-emitting elements also have great potential as planar light sources applicable to lightings and the like.
Such light-emitting elements utilizing electroluminescence can be broadly classified according to whether a light-emitting substance is an organic compound or an inorganic compound. In the case of an organic EL element in which a layer containing an organic compound used as a light-emitting substance is provided between a pair of electrodes, application of a voltage to the light-emitting element causes injection of electrons from a cathode and holes from an anode into the layer containing the organic compound having a light-emitting property and thus a current flows. The injected electrons and holes then lead the organic compound having a light-emitting property to its excited state, whereby light emission is obtained from the excited organic compound having a light-emitting property.
The excited state formed by an organic compound can be a singlet excited state or a triplet excited state. Emission from the singlet excited state (S*) is called fluorescence, and emission from the triplet excited state (T*) is called phosphorescence. In addition, the statistical generation ratio thereof in a light-emitting element is considered to be as follows: S*:T*=1:3.
In a compound which converts energy of a singlet excited state into light emission (hereinafter, referred to as a fluorescent compound), at room temperature, emission from the triplet excited state (phosphorescence) is not observed while only emission from the singlet excited state (fluorescence) is observed. Therefore the internal quantum efficiency (the ratio of generated photons to injected carriers) of a light-emitting element using a fluorescent compound is assumed to have a theoretical limit of 25% based on the ratio of S* to T* which is 1:3.
In contrast, in a compound which converts energy of a triplet excited state into light emission (hereinafter, referred to as a phosphorescent compound), emission from the triplet excited state (phosphorescence) is observed. Further, in a phosphorescent compound, since intersystem crossing (i.e. transfer from a singlet excited state to a triplet excited state) easily occurs, the internal quantum efficiency can be increased to 75% to 100% in theory. In other words, the emission efficiency can be three to four times as much as that of a fluorescent compound. For this reason, light-emitting elements using phosphorescent compounds are now under active development in order to realize highly efficient light-emitting elements.
When a light-emitting layer of a light-emitting element is formed using a phosphorescent compound described above, in order to suppress concentration quenching or quenching due to triplet-triplet annihilation in the phosphorescent compound, the light-emitting layer is often formed such that the phosphorescent compound is dispersed in a matrix of another compound. Here, the compound serving as the matrix is called a host material, and the compound dispersed in the matrix, such as a phosphorescent compound, is called a guest material.
In the case where a phosphorescent compound is a guest material, a host material needs to have higher triplet excitation energy (a larger energy difference between a ground state and a triplet excited state) than the phosphorescent compound.
Furthermore, since singlet excitation energy (an energy difference between a ground state and a singlet excited state) is higher than triplet excitation energy, a substance that has high triplet excitation energy also has high singlet excitation energy. Therefore the above substance that has high triplet excitation energy is also effective in a light-emitting element using a fluorescent compound as a light-emitting substance.
Studies have been conducted on compounds having dibenzo[f,h]quinoxaline rings, which are examples of the host material used when a phosphorescent compound is a guest material (e.g., see Patent Documents 1 and 2).